Might the worrisome symptoms of anxiety have a useful function? Our ancestors needed to worry about lions, tigers, bears, and the headhunters over the next hill. But is anxiety still useful in the modern world? There are some scientific findings on this question.

Online dating is the new singles bar, one in which your words won't be drowned out by the music. But which words should you use? There is some scientific evidence about relatively more effective ways to turn an online contact into a real huggable moment.

Can observing testosterone crazed skateboarders, or delving into the risky decisions made by Joe Kennedy's descendants who died tragic early deaths, inform us about the fundamental bases of our everyday decisions?

Psychopaths, narcissists, and sadists, oh my! Personality psychologist Del Paulhus has bucked the positive psychology trend, with a series of rigorous studies delving into the "Dark Side" of human personality. He has shown that four dark traits have distinct but often unexpected consequences in the workplace and in relationships.

Can one find wisdom on a burrito bag? My wife discovered a long quote from psychologist Steven Pinker on her Chipotle’s lunch sack. Right there, wrapped around a bowl full of carnitas and guacamole, Pinker offered a two-minute summary of scientific data addressing the question: Is the world becoming a better or worse place to live?

If you were on your deathbed and had to offer a single bit of wisdom to your child, what would it be? I asked several sage psychologists, book authors, and old friends to share 2 or 3 kernels of wisdom I could pass on to my son. Maybe you can guess what one bit of advice came up most frequently. Though it sounds simple, it can be surprisingly difficult to follow.

If there were a few kernels of wisdom you think a parent should pass on to his kid, what would they be? Here is my original list of ten gems of wisdom for my young son, but I think they apply to you and me, as well. Let me know if I've missed something.

If there were 2 or 3 kernels of wisdom you think a parent should pass on to his kid, what would they be? I would actually like to hear from you, and from some sage older person you regard as having lived a fulfilling life.

Should abortion be freely available? Should millionaires and billionaires pay higher taxes? My answers to those questions, like yours, are driven by higher principles. Or are they? Here's a look at a brilliant and thought-provoking new book by Jason Weeden and Robert Kurzban.

Maybe you don’t think of statistics as sexy. But Christian Rudder's new book "Dataclysm" might very well change your mind about that. He has mined the data from the clicks and messages of millions of online daters to reveal some surprising patterns of human choice, and he argues convincingly that Big Data can tell us things that traditional scientific methods can not.

A 9-year-old girl accidentally shot a man with an Uzi, leading to media discussions of the gun culture in Arizona and other U.S. states. Here are some statistics comparing gun ownership, homicide and suicide rates, and each states’ gun-friendliness as judged by "Guns & Ammo" magazine. Warning: the numbers might not all fit your expectations.

Some movies take you to fantastic places you’ll never take yourself, where heroic figures tackle problems you'll never encounter. But some of the most masterful movies ever made, like Richard Linklater's "Boyhood," take you to a place that feels just exactly like your real life, and raise deep questions about things you ponder every day.

Did you catch that guy’s smile? Probably. We are able to accurately recognize a smile in about 50 milliseconds (that’s a fleeting 1/20 of a second). Not only that, we can recognize a happy expression on someone who is standing half a football field away. A new paper explores research on the extraordinary vividness of happiness.

Ah, love! Is the feeling of love all blissful for you, or is it more complicated? Some research suggests that the dialecticism emphasized by East Asians may inspire a different experience of love, one that incorporates more negative feelings alongside blissful harmonious affection.

About Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life

What do sex and murder have to do with the meaning of life? Oscar Wilde said "We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars.” But to see the stars -- to understand where human beings fit into the universe -- you have to be willing to look in the gutter -- to explore the simple selfish biases that link us with baboons, hyenas, chimpanzees, and naked mole rats. Ironically, studying those simple selfish biases helps us understand our generosity, creativity, and the emergence of human society.